Wonder City Sports Talk

In this episode of Wonder City Sports  Coach Edmonds, James Pelham and their sons stop by to talk about winning the 3A state championship. Coach Irby provides an update on the Hopewell football team. 

In this episode Hopewell Jv Basketball and Prince George boys, Volleyball coach Mayes Marks and his sons stop by to discuss sports in the Tri-cities. 

Week 13 of Wonder City Sports talk featured Assistant Hopewell High School Boys Basketball Coach Jarred Jenkins, who is also the school's golf coach. He shared his enthusiasm for beginning practice with the team on December 7th and hopefully 2 weeks later the freedom to have their first game against Petersburg High School. Coach Jenkins shared a Tiger Woods type story of his father teaching him the game of golf at age three. He shared his commitment to helping establish golf for Hopewell elementary students. Our second guest was the former captain of the 2015 Hopewell High School boys basketball team Isaiah Fernandez. Isaiah shared how his struggle with high school injuries helped make him a better person and better able to pass along life lessons to current college players at Mississippi State University where he is a graduate assistant for the ladies team.

The Executive Director of Hopewell Parks and Recreation, Mr. Aaron
Reidmiller joined us for the hour. A Hopewell native, Aaron described his athletic upbringing, from baseball and soccer to golf. Earning a Recreation degree at VCU, he first served in Henrico county before returning to Hopewell to this,  his current position some 5 years ago.
Aaron highlights not only his department's oversight in young people's athletic development, but helping people of all ages access  holistic programs. He also describes his department's attention to environmental stewardship, and renovations to city parks.

Week 11 of Wonder City Sports talk begins with cardiologist Dr. Cliff Morris as our first guest. Having played with Michael Jordan in the mid-80s at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Morris talked also about his time  playing for UNC Coach
Dean Smith.

Dr. Morris also described his holistic commitment to medical care for over 20 years in Hopewell. His "Aspire Scholarship" offers those with chronic health conditions the opportunity for assistance. He is also working with Hopewell leaders to help to bring the international work of " Blue Zones" - a   program that reinforces his commitment to holistic health care, to our city.

Our second guest was Ligon "Lucky" Jones, a  Hopewell business leader specializing in auto, home, business, and life insurance. Lucky was joined by coach Marshall Parker, and they relived the successful high school football days of the late '60s for Hopewell High School.
They finished the hour discussing the reasons why Hopewell continues enjoying athletic success in the midst of specific societal challenges.

In week 10 of Wonder, City Sports talk,  Coach Bill Littlepage, returns to the program along with fellow coach Billy Russell from Prince George High School. They talk about the days when their teams squared off as rivals. They talk about their friendship, then and now. They discussed what they did to balance academics, character, and keeping in their players the intense desire to win. They reflected on their role as Athletic Directors and what they would do today if serving in that role. Finally, Covid 19 was discussed with all its complexities on athletic programs, and the governor's decision announced today that may cut out winter sports.

Coach Ricky Irby brought two of his football players on to Wonder City Sports talk as our first guests.  Senior's Robert Briggs and Eric McDaniels joined the Coach. In our second half-hour, we interviewed Coach Delicia Page, Hopewell's  Cheerleading Coach along with
cheerleader Emauni Brown

PGA tour Sales Manager Jeff Fitch joins us for the hour!  A Hopewell High School graduate from 1986, Jeff ran for the Cross Country team,  and later taught in the Hopewell school system as well as coached track and field. For 11 and 1/2 years he worked for the Richmond Sports Backers before taking his current sales position for the PGA tour. Some topics that were addressed: how can we make the game of golf more accessible to all people, and how the pandemic actually has helped the game of golf.

Host Jeff Butler, co-host Stefan Calos,  Chai Gallahun,  Charlie Dane

Hopewell High School Athletic Director Kerry Gray spoke with us first about the one to one athletic training he has provided for various Hopewell athletes -including brothers Ronnie Walker and Tre Henderson. We also reviewed  the Virginia High School League's adjusted efforts for  sports delayed by  the Coronavirus.

Our second guest was Hopewell native and Olympian swimmer Diane Miller Lauder. We discussed the success she enjoyed at University of Richmond earning All American Honors for her 9 individual titles and 3  First place Relay Races. A member of the Va. Sports Hall of Fame, she is a proud Mom, lawyer, and currently works for University of Richmond as its Director of Planned Giving.

Former  Football Head Coach Bobby Ross, from Georgia Tech, and San Diego Charger days joined us to not only talk with us about college and NFL coaching days but also when as quarterback for Benedictine High School,  he went up against the Hopewell High School state championship teams of the early fifties. Then Girls Field Hockey Coach Lara Stables, in her 7th year as Hopewell High Schools coach, gave us the inside scoop on this fall sport be ing postponed to winter because of the virus. She also spoke about her current cadre of senior players and their contributions to the team.

Former Hopewell High School Basketball  Coach  and State Hall a Famer Bill Littlepage,  and one of the stars of his 1972 State Championship team Ed Gholson

In Episode 4 of Wonder City Sports talk Coaches Elvin and Jackie Edmonds and their son Elvin the fourth were our guests. As these coaches spearhead the boys and girls basketball programs at Hopewell High School, their son is a rising senior in his father's program and has  lead the team in scoring each of the last three years. They spoke to the ingredients of success that they work towards as a family and as a team.

In this episode of Wonder City Sports, The Wonder City crew welcomes Hopewell Offensive Line Coach Brian Moore, Golf Coach Jared Jenkins

and Senior Quarterback Joseph Elliades

Offensive coordinator for Hopewell High School's Football team, Brock Parker, was our first guest. Raised in a football family, his father and co-host Marshall Parker spoke to those growing up years.  Both having played quarterback, they interacted about the importance of character and family values in the development of leadership with their teams and the community. Switching gears, our second guest Rich Halas is the Cross Country Coach for Hopewell High School. He spoke about the challenge of coaching during COVID, and how the delayed season impacts his coaching of the Wrestling team. He will return later in the fall to talk about Wrestling. We returned in our final segment to Coach Marshall Parker.  We heard his reflection upon his 2003 Division 5 State Championship team, as well as his grooming of Assistant Coach Ricky Irby who now as Head Coach, has won two Division 3 State Championships in the last three years.

"Wonder City" is Hopewell's nostalgic name, and we kicked off  our program  with legendary Wonder City Coach J.P. Tiller and his grandson Adam Tiller, a head football coach in his own right here in our area.  The Tiller's then handed things off to current Hopewell High School Coach Ricky Irby, who got his start in coaching 20 years ago from one of our co-hosts, Coach Marshall Parker.  Between the two of them, they've coached  three State Championships for Hopewell High , and they humbly shared some of the secrets to their success.  Then we capped off our program with the Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year Trey Henderson, who helped lead the Blue Devils to a perfect 15-0 season and their second state championship in three years.  He talked about his commitment to Ohio State and the challenges since COVID-19 .  

Introduction to Wonder City Sports Talk